As I started seeing more and more of them (though never many - I estimate I've seen about a dozen examples from Siberia and the Far East during the last 25 years) a few trends were obvious. Disregarding the howlingly rare cash frankings of the Far Eastern Republic, the cash frankings were all from areas under Kolchak's control, and they were all on registered letters to inland destinations. Since such mail isn't exactly common it's no wonder we see so few examples, and the fact that stampless mail seems to have a lower survival rate to begin with doesn't help. And yes, unregistered mail to domestic destinations was franked with stamps!
You can form a small and frustratingly static collection of the cachets involved. I've seen examples from about 5 cities and while a few are obviously from the same mold, they're mostly very individualistic creations.
The odd man out is this cover:
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| Registered letter from Tugulymskoe, Tobol'sk to Kamyshlov, March 1919 |
A few differences makes this one example unusual. It's a wholly manuscript notation, which is unique in my experience for White Siberia, but hardly surprising for such a small place. Second, it's fairly early, predating Kolchak's first set of rates, though not the earliest I've ever seen (I've seen a late 1918 example from Vladivostok). Finally, what about that 7k stamp inprint on the stationery envelope? Was it counted? Ignored? Was this envelope sold by the post office with ms. notation and all?
Wonderful stuff!
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